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SYSTEM AUDIT. The camp of vice presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr, represented by lawyer Jose Amorado (left) and party-list congressman Jonathan dela Cruz (right), wants the Comelec to allow a public audit of the results server before the start of the official canvassing of votes on May 25, 2016. Photo by Jasmin Dulay/Rappler

MANILA, Philippines – The camp of Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr officially filed on Wednesday afternoon, May 18, a formal letter requesting the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to open its election servers for public audit.

"I am formally requesting that this Commission permit my team of IT experts and programmerswithin 3 days from the receipt hereof to conduct an audit of the Transparency Server and the Central Server," said the letter signed by Marcos.

The Marcos camp filed the letter a week after his legal team also wrote to ask the poll body for an explanation on the alleged breach in their servers.

They suspected that after this new command was introduced, Marcos' initial lead over Robredo was eroded.

Dela Cruz, Marcos' campaign adviser, said they want to conduct the public audit ahead of the official canvassing of votes that will be administered by the Senate and the House of Representatives starting May 25.

Still, Dela Cruz told reporters after filing that they are not insinuating or accusing anyone of cheating.

"Wala po tayong inaakusahan na may nandaya. Ang sinasabi namin dito, ang kailangan natin, hanapin natin ang katotohanan," he said. (We are not accusing anyone of cheating. What we are saying is we need to find the truth.)

He also said that even Robredo's camp and other parties are welcome to join their public audit, should they be permitted to do so. In Naga City, Robredo said on Wednesday that she was open to the system audit if only to "remove any doubts over the integrity of the elections." – Rappler.com

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Welcome to Rappler, a social news network where stories inspire community engagement and digitally fuelled actions for social change. Rappler comes from the root words "rap" (to discuss) + "ripple" (to make waves).